Message from President

President & Representative Director

Thank you for visiting the website of Ube Industries, Ltd.

The origins of the Ube Industries Group began more than a century ago in 1897, with the founding of the Okinoyama Coal Mine in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture under the leadership of our founding president, Sukesaku Watanabe.

Since then, UBE has continued to expand into diverse areas of business including machinery, cement, chemicals, and the energy and environment sector while emphasizing business synergy and securing regional development. We continue to keep a diverse business portfolio, yet the nature of our business and our regional business development is changing significantly with the times.

Under our medium-term management plan, Change & Challenge 2018, UBE has set the following two basic policy, "Strengthen the Business Foundation to Enable Sustainable Growth" and "Address and be Part of the Solution for Resource, Energy, and Global Environmental Issues", and is implementing diverse strategies.

Lately, UBE's non-chemicals businesses have generated strong results while the chemicals segment has struggled. The latter has been due to deflationary pressure brought on by shifting market conditions including increased competition from emerging countries, and from other factors such as shorter life cycles for chemical products. As we outlined in our medium-term management plan, UBE will put every effort into further strengthening the revenue base from non-chemicals businesses and work to quickly revive the chemicals segment, as business conditions rapidly change. Our strength is technology and engineering, which we will leverage to enhance our competitiveness while we develop our business globally and move faster as a company.

UBE is committed to securing continued growth for all stakeholders including shareholders, and for the sake of future generations. Thank you for your continued support.

For more details of the new medium-term management plan called "Change & Challenge" ,please click here (PDF:3.18MB).

Fiscal 2017 Earnings Results

Overview

During the current term, the price rise of raw materials and fuels had an affect on overall business performance of the Company Group: in particular, the Construction Material Business was heavily affected by the coal price that remained high. On the other hand, the Company Group posted increases in both net sales and operating profit as a whole, thanks to a significant business improvement in the Chemicals Segment where periodic inspection of the domestic ammonia product factory was not performed and the continued strong demand contributed to improvement in the market condition for the chemicals products as well as sales expansion of functional chemical products. In addition, both consolidated ordinary profit and profit attributable to owners of parent reached the record high in Company Group's history. The Company Group reports its consolidated results during the current term as follows:

(Billions of yen)

Item

Net sales

Operating profit

Ordinary profit

Profit attributable toowners of parent

April 2017 – March 2018(1)

695.5

50.2

50.7

31.6

April 2016 – March 2017(2)

616.5

34.9

33.3

24.1

Difference(1)-(2)

79.0

15.2

17.3

7.4

Percentage change

12.8%

43.7%

52.1%

31.0%

Overview by Segment

Net sales

(Billions of yen)

Segment

April 2017 – March 2018(1)

April 2016 – March 2017(2)

Difference(1)-(2)

Percentagechange

Chemicals

305.4

258.3

47.0

18.2%

Pharmaceutical

10.2

10.9

-0.7

-6.9%

Cement & ConstructionMaterials

238.8

227.2

11.6

5.1%

Machinery

90.1

71.6

18.4

25.8%

Energy & Environment

71.3

59.7

11.5

19.4%

Others

4.7

12.5

-7.7

-61.7%

Adjustment

-25.2

-23.9

-1.2

-

Total

695.5

616.5

79.0

12.8%

Operating profit

(Billions of yen)

Segment

April 2017 – March 2018(1)

April 2016 – March 2017(2)

Difference(1)-(2)

Percentagechange

Chemicals

28.9

9.6

19.3

200.0%

Pharmaceutical

2.1

2.4

-0.3

-15.6%

Cement & ConstructionMaterials

12.3

16.2

-3.9

-24.1%

Machinery

5.5

3.6

1.8

50.1%

Energy & Environment

2.3

2.8

-0.5

-17.7%

Others

0.8

0.7

0.1

15.6%

Adjustment

-1.9

-0.7

-1.1

-

Total

50.2

34.9

15.2

43.7%

Chemicals Segment – Increases in both net sales and operating profit

Nylon, Caprolactam and Industrial Chemicals Businesses The Caprolactam Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to a rise in the sale prices backed by the tighten supplydemand balance mainly after implementation of the environmental regulation in China. The Nylon Business recorded a sales increase, because of a rise in the sale prices backed by price rises of raw materials such as caprolactam, as well as a steady increase in shipment of the products represented by the ones used for food wrap films. The Industrial Chemicals Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to increase in production and shipment for the reason that there were no regular maintenance of the ammonia product factory in Japan and backed by strong demand.

The Synthetic Rubber Business recorded a sales increase, because the sales prices rose supported by price rises of raw materials such as butadiene; and shipment of the products was steady as a whole, represented by the products used for tires in the Japanese market.

Battery Materials and Fine Chemicals Businesses The Battery Materials Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to a sales volume increase mainly supported by demand expansion of the products mounted on automobiles. The Fine Chemicals Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to an increase in a sales volume as a whole.

Polyimide and Functional Products Businesses The Polyimide Business recorded a sales increase, because of a sales volume increase in films mainly used on circuit boards.

Pharmaceutical – Decreases in both net sales and operating profit

While sales volumes of both drugs developed by UBE and those manufactured under contract were at the same level with the same period of the previous fiscal year, a sales of the Pharmaceutical Business decreased as a whole, due to a fall in the royalty revenues.

The Cement and Ready-Mixed Concrete Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to strong business performance of the Ready-Mixed Concrete Business that offset the demand in the Japan market that remained at the same level of the previous years. On the other hand, the business was affected by a price rise of coal.

The Calcia, Magnesia and Construction Materials Businesses recorded a sales increase, because of the price revision.

Machinery – Increases in both net sales and operating profit

The Molding and Industrial Machines Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to strong product sales and addition of a new consolidated subsidiary in January 2017.

The Steel Products Business recorded a sales increase, because of a price rise of steel billets supported by an increase in prices of scrap, the raw material for steel.

The Coal Business saw increases in a sales volume of coal as well as a volume of coal dealing at UBE's Coal Center (a coal storage facility), and its sales also increased, due to rises of sales prices backed by strong coal market.

Although power generation output remained at the almost same level with the same period of the previous fiscal year, the Power Producer Business recorded a sales increase, thanks to rises of sales prices backed by good condition of the coal market. During the current term, the periodic biyearly repair of the IPP power plant took place.